The Sound of Music tells the true story (with some embellishments) of the Trapp family, who formed a family singing troupe in Austria before escaping to the United States in 1938, avoiding the Anschluss (Nazi annexation of Austria). The tale hinges on the unlikely romance of family patriarch Georg, a widower and military man, and Maria, a young abbey drop-out sent to be the governess for the seven von Trapp children. Maria charms the children, teaches them to sing, and eventually catches Georg’s romantic attention, causing him to break off his engagement to a the glamorous Elsa. All of this happens as the Nazis become a more and more pervasive presence, leading eventually to the family’s dramatic escape across the Alps to Switzerland. In reality, they boarded a train to Italy and under no false pretenses, en route to a concert tour of the United States. They eventually settled in Stowe, Vermont, where they established the Trapp Family Lodge, which still operates as a resort and hotel run by the family.
The Trapp family story was first dramatized in the real Maria’s memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, released in 1949. This account led West German director Wolfgang Liebeneiner to make two films dramatizing the Trapps’ story, The Trapp Family (1956) and The Trapp Family in America (1958). These, in turn, caught the attention of American stage director Vincent Donehue, who set in motion plans for a play based on the story. This idea eventually became the musical The Sound of Music, with original songs by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It starred Mary Martin as Maria and won five Tony Awards when it debuted in 1959. It was to be the last collaboration between Rodgers and Hammerstein, as Hammerstein died of stomach cancer less than a year after its premiere, marking the end of one of Broadway’s most famous and productive partnerships. The musical was adapted into a film of the same name in 1965, with Julie Andrews as Maria and most of Rodgers’s and Hammerstein’s songs intact. It won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and was a popular smash, reigning as the highest grossing film of all time for five years. Many of the songs have gone on to become popular stands in their own right, having been interpreted and recorded by hundreds of artists over the intervening decades.
The Austin Symphonic Band performs the full Sound of Music Selections, assembled for band by Robert Russell Bennett, who frequently orchestrated the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein and many other Broadway luminaries:
The film (and the Selections) opens with Maria singing the title song in a stunning alpine setting:
“How Can Love Survive” was cut from the film (as were all of Elsa’s songs) – in it, she and her friend Max wonder how love can possibly bloom in such times:
“The Lonely Goatherd” comes next. It’s an interlude of sorts in the film that shows how much Maria and children are doing together:
Like many of the other songs from The Sound of Music, “My Favorite Things” has become a standard in its own right. Here it is in the film, where it serves as a bonding scene for Maria and the children:
“Sixteen Going on Seventeen” first appears in the film as future Nazi Rolf tries to show Liesl, the oldest Von Trapp daughter, just how immature she is (while also attempting to woo her into some rather mature activities):
“So Long, Farewell” is a showcase for the children at a posh dinner party:
“Do-Re-Mi” shows Maria teaching the children how to sing:
“Edelweiss” is not actually an Austrian folk song, but a Richard Rodgers original, though its treatment in the film and the musical does carry Austrian nationalist (and thus anti-Nazi) undertones:
In the musical, Maria and the Captain admit their love for each other by professing their shared wish to be “An Ordinary Couple“:
Max and Elsa attempt to convince the Captain that there’s “No Way to Stop It” (the Anschluss) in a delightfully satirical number that once again did not make the film:
“Maria” give us a glimpse into Maria’s character as the nuns discuss why she doesn’t belong in the abbey:
The Selections end with “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” which is used both to encourage the characters (Maria, at first) to confront the challenges before them, and as a soundtrack to the Von Trapp family literally climbing the mountains to escape Austria and the Nazis at the end of the story.
See more about The Sound of Music at IMDB, its own website, Concord Theatricals, Variety, and Rotten Tomatoes.
The original publication of Russell Bennett’s selections from “The Sound of Music” included a Db Piccolo part. Apparently this part was never engraved as a C Piccolo part, so the publishers just eliminated the part from the set, and since there is no full score, no one was the wiser. However, I have found the Db Piccolo part, and transposed it to C so it is available again. I also created a full score of this and the orchestral selections – the orchestra selection and the band selection are identical in every respect, so one must assume that one is a transcription of the other, but it is impossible to know which came first.
Greetings Mark. Thanks for you post. I am hoping to read this piece with our adult community wind ensemble next week and was wondering if you would be willing to share the C piccolo part you generated for the piece?
Send me your email and I’ll send you the part.